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“I’m sorry.” Her eyes flew to his, wide, deep brown staring into him as she tried to figure out if he was being genuine. He let her see the truth of it, of him. “I’ve had bad experiences before with people. But that’s no excuse for how I treated you. I’m sorry.”

They stared at each other, and he wondered what she would say when the elevator dinged and the doors opened. She distracted herself by stepping off, tracking down the rooms, only to find that their doors were across the hall from each other. He waited while she slipped her keycard into the reader, getting it on the second try and stepping in, holding the door for him, and he saw the hesitation in her eyes.

He slid her bag from his shoulder, depositing it at her feet just inside the door, his shoulders filling the doorframe as his glance took in her room before landing on her.

“Lock your door.”

Stepping away, Hayden was already turning across the hall to his own door when her soft voice hit him.

“I forgive you.”

Hayden glanced toward her to see she was standing in the doorway, her chin lifted, her eyes stubborn. “But don’t fucking do it again.”

She shut the door then, and he found himself chuckling as he slid his keycard into the slot, idly wondering what the fuck was going on in his head when he was near this woman. Hayden wasn’t a fan of traveling, wasn’t big on hotels or crowds or anything like what the weekend had in store for him. But he found himself looking forward to the convention in a way he hadn’t in years.

This should be fun.

CHAPTER6

MIN

Min finished throwing the dead bolt and other locks on the door, then inserted her own personal door blocker into the lock, making sure the door was firmly shut and as impenetrable as she could make it. She scanned the room, checking the pictures and mirrors, checking the window, checking the bathroom, making sure there were no small lights or anything that could be hiding a hidden camera. The hotel had rave reviews and seemed to be safe, but a woman traveling alone could never be too careful. And thanks to Alex’s brand of douche-baggery, Min was now extra paranoid in new places.

Finally satisfied she was as safe as she could get, Min started to unpack, needing to do something with all the restless energy left in her after traveling with Hayden and sleeping the last leg of the trip. She couldn’t say she was angry about him switching seats to sit next to her since her original seating buddy had been such a distracting pill. And for all of Hayden’s abrasiveness, he had actually ended up being… fine. Quiet, for the most part, but not necessarily in an awkward way. Focused more on whatever he was working on his laptop than he was on what Min was doing. Sure, he made it a habit to look at her screen and comment on the gameplay videos she was watching. But he hadn’t been intrusive, and they had eventually fallen into a companionable silence, lulled by the rhythmic rocking of the train. Overall, it was a pretty nice train ride.

But then Min had woken up with her head on his fucking shoulder. She was embarrassed, worried she had drooled on him or done something else that she would never live down. And then when the driver made his interest clear, she had felt Hayden’s amusement next to her that had her flushing even redder.

Min tried not to care about what he was thinking about her for the last few hours they had been together. She tried telling herself he was just some recluse streamer who hated her and she wasn’t going to let him take up space in her brain. When that didn’t work, she turned to the hotel pamphlets neatly stacked on the nightstand. She smiled at the advertisements for the morning buffet. There was French toast in her future, which meant the day was already looking bright.

Pulling out her phone, Min texted her sister that she had arrived safely, and was rewarded with a thumbs-up emoji. She then checked her Twitter account, quickly scanning the new hate tweets that had come her way since the last time she had looked. When it had been announced she was competing in the Bleeding Sword tournament, it had awoken all the internet trolls who had finally lost steam in their vitriol. From the looks of her mentions, she was again being told she was a good-for-nothing whore, slut, thot, and several other names she’d have to look up later because she didn’t know the reference. But what was easy to understand was that the vast majority of social media agreed Min definitely didn’t deserve any of her success since she must have gotten it by sucking cocks.

Great.

Not liking it, but used to the hate by now, she went to her secret Instagram for a serotonin boost. She had spent months carefully curating it with kittens and horoscopes and the few select friends she allowed to know about it. But of course, the first thing at the top of her feed was a post from her ex. ShakespeareWithGuns aka Alex.

Fucking Alex. If anyone made her want to breathe actual fire, it was him.

Min had come to the realization in the last few weeks that Alex must have set this all up on purpose, that he must have already had the camera installed that night when he had asked her to keep the FlameThrower outfit on during sex. She remembered being excited, thinking a night of spicy roleplaying was exactly what they needed to jumpstart their pretty lackluster sex life.

But instead it had been yet another disappointing evening of Alex bitching at her for not coming when he did the bare minimum and her making a to-do list for her week while waiting for him to finish. She had ended up leaving that night and not looking back, breaking it off with him later in the week. Life was too short and, at twenty-six, she was too young to settle for sex with no orgasms.

And then she found out he had been cheating the whole time.

Looking back, she wasn’t surprised. The cheating, along with his jealousy of her rising stardom and his bad attitude toward the time she needed to spend with her recovering sister, made her feel like an idiot for staying as long as she did. When things had finally ended, she had felt nothing but relief that Alex was officially out of her life.

A few weeks later, the naked photos of her had appeared online. The IP address was traced to a computer at a public library. Untraceable, according to the detective assigned to her case. But Min knew it was Alex. She just couldn’t prove it.

The internet had demanded she reveal the identity of the man in the photos with her, but she couldn’t bring herself to name him. She wasn’t ashamed of having sex. She was a healthy adult woman with a sex drive and she didn’t give a damn if people knew that. But if she revealed him online, her name would be connected to his in perpetuity. Whenever someone looked her up, they would always see him in connection to her. She didn’t want to give him that power. So she kept his identity a secret and let the internet hate her. Min was a big believer in karma, so she put her trust in the universe that Alex would get his.

But now here was his Instagram picture, fucking up her day. Alex was here. At the convention, which shouldn’t have been a surprise but still was. They had talked about going together this year, so she should have remembered he already had a ticket, the one she had spent hours online refreshing her browser to purchase for him. His picture showed a carefully crafted selfie he had taken with one of the large signs advertising the tournament. Which meant he was probably participating, even though Min hadn’t seen him on any of the lists.

Good. He was a good player, but she was better. Min was going to use the game to shut him down. Soundly. Taking the win and the money and the sponsorship and leaving him in the dirt where he belonged. That would feel good.

Nodding at her own thoughts, Min put on her PJs, set the alarm on her phone, rechecked the door, and then finally collapsed into her bed. Her mind swirled with everything she had to do the next day, the mental preparation she needed for the first bracket of the Bleeding Sword tournament. But instead of focusing, Min found her thoughts drifting back to Hayden. How different he had seemed in real life, but still familiar to her. Confusing.

She drifted to sleep with the memory of how he had pushed her against the wall of the elevator, his hand holding her wrist away from her, his leg sliding between hers and anchoring her to him, his heat and his hard body and his overwhelming presence turning the moment into something that coiled in Min’s stomach.

When her alarm went off the next morning, Min sat up with a gasp, the last dregs of Hayden slipping away from her, leaving her aching and frustrated. With a quick breath, Min rolled out of bed, determined to put her dreams and Hayden behind her. There was too much to do, and Min knew how much of her time would quickly get sucked up and disappear once she arrived at the convention center.

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